Friday, July 31, 2009

The High Court will next Tuesday announce its decision on the preliminary objection from the prosecution over the return of Kugan Ananthan's post-mortem samples which were confiscated from the University…

The High Court will next Tuesday announce its decision on the preliminary objection from the prosecution over the return of Kugan Ananthan's post-mortem samples which were confiscated from the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) by the police.

The items that were seized include bodily fluids and tissue samples, photographs, documents and other materials relating to the post-mortem done on Kugan by a UMMC pathologist.

Kugan's family has earlier filed a court application to reclaim the seized items.

Kugan, 22, who was detained in January for alleged involvement in car theft, died after five days in police custody.

His family had rejected the initial post-mortem conducted by Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin of Serdang Hospital, which stated that the Kugan had died from “fluid accumulation” in his lungs.

A second autopsy was done at UMMC at the request of the family, where pathologist Dr Prashant N Sambekar Prashant concluded that Kugan was severely beaten up resulting in kidney failure and death.

High Court Judge Ghazali Cha today heard written submissions from both the prosecution and lawyers representing Kugan's mother N Indra (left), who had filed the suit.

Deputy public prosecutor Noorin Badaruddin contended that the search warrant which was granted by the Petaling Jaya Magistrate Court on April 4 to allow the police to raid Prashant's office was not a “proceeding”.

Noorin added that the family's application to reclaim the seized items was not lawful as the seizure was done to facilitate police investigations.

Furthermore, Noorin said Indra did not have locus standi in law to apply for her son's confiscated samples.

“Even if there is an application made or any action to question the search conducted, it can only be done by UMMC as it took place in their premise,” said Noorin.

The suit named four police officers, including inspector-general of police Musa Hassan and criminal investigation department director Mohd Bakri Zinin, as respondents.

The other two are Petaling Jaya district police chief Arjunaidi Mohammed and the officer who raided the pathologist's office, ACP Mohd Marzukhi Mohd Mokhtar.

The case was classified as murder and 11 police officers were subsequently re-assigned to desk duties. Investigations have since been wrapped up, but no one has been charged.

“We say it openly - the police killed Kugan. We have no doubt about it. If it is not true, they can charge us for criminal defamation...

“The death occurred because of murder and torture which happened in January but now it is now July, and we ask why are the murderers and torturers in uniform allowed to walk free in this country,” expressed Surendran (centre in photo).

“We are running out of patience. If Kugan's murderers are not charged by the AG, we will carry out mass peaceful demonstrations calling for justice for Kugan,” he warned.

“We have tried all other means. Nothing has worked. We will demonstrate, we will take to the streets, we will never stop until Kugan's murderers are brought to justice.

“We are fed-up waiting and looking at this poor mother and seeing what this unjust state is doing to her... one would think that when the culprits have been identified, within one or two weeks, they would be charged,” said Surendran.

The lawyer also likened Kugan's death to that of political aide Teoh Beng Hock and added that his death could have been avoided if “a royal commission was formed to review the interrogations process by both the police and other authorities”.

“They allowed Kugan's case to remain unresolved and Teoh is now dead... all this at the doors of (Prime Minister) Najib (Abdul Razak). His hands are stained in blood because he didn't institute the necessary reforms,” said Surendran.

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